When I used one of these things, the tape was all black. I was a law enforcement explorer scout at the time and the police department would let us kids run dispatch. We were really cheap labor.

If I recall correctly, it could receive automatically when idling: The state computer would sometimes broadcast messages to be printed on the paper. The number of bells would indicate the level of importance.

When I had a license to run, I'd type it on to the paper tape. When done, I'd then cut off the paper tap and feed it into the tape reader, which would send it off to the state computer. Several minutes later, the reply would print out on the roll paper.

Pretty hi-tech for the mid-70's in the logger town I grew up in.

I'm somewhat envious and can envision all sorts of fun uses for one of those things.

The current tape is just black, but that's not to say that the machine couldn't handle a red/black tape -- when I get it working I'll stick a red/black tape in there and see what happens -- thanks for thinking of this...

At a quick glance looks like the default is FDX which makes life much easier for a converter. I daresay someone on the site would know lots more. The site aht led me her had some comments by people who'd tried to get one going and had problems as the grease had solidified, so if yours apears to work you're doing well....

Half your luck Max, it is a thing of beauty indeed. From my limited understanding of these devices, KSR-33's were keyboard only (Keyboard Send-Receive) and ASR-33's had the tape punch and reader (Automatic Send-receive).

I had a lot to do with the Siemens T-100, the European equivalent, but they used Baudot code (5 Bits) not ASCII (7 or 8 bits) like yours. I also trained on an even earlier British model, the Creed 7B, and had a lot of fun with them, see

Love the idea of having it greet visitors to your office Max, I howp you get that going. I have seen an RS-232 to 20-mA loop converter circuit somewhere, but I have no idea where. Do you know if it is half-duplex (both send and receive on the same loop) or full (2 separate loops)?